Citation

Laflamme L, Hasselberg M, Burrows S. Int. J. Pediatr. 2010; 2010: e819687.

Affiliation

Division of Global Health, Department of Public Health Sciences, Karolinska Institutet, Nobels vag 9, 171 76 Stockholm, Sweden.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2010, Hindawi Publishing)

DOI

10.1155/2010/819687

PMID

20706660

PMCID

PMC2913857

Abstract

Injuries are one of the major causes of both death and social inequalities in health in children. This paper reviews and reflects on two decades of empirical studies (1990 to 2009) published in the peer-reviewed medical and public health literature on socioeconomic disparities as regards the five main causes of childhood unintentional injuries (i.e., traffic, drowning, poisoning, burns, falls). Studies have been conducted at both area and individual levels, the bulk of which deal with road traffic, burn, and fall injuries. As a whole and for each injury cause separately, their results support the notion that low socioeconomic status is greatly detrimental to child safety but not in all instances and settings. In light of variations between causes and, within causes, between settings and countries, it is emphasized that the prevention of inequities in child safety requires not only that proximal risk factors of injuries be tackled but also remote and fundamental ones inherent to poverty.

Language: en